Friday, October 26, 2007

Microsoft Reports Strong Gain on Sales of PC and Server Software - New York Times

Clearly not having an existential crisis...

Yesterday’s earnings report illustrates how far Microsoft has to go. Its online services unit grew 25 percent, to $671 million, but its revenue amounted to less than 6 percent of Microsoft’s quarterly sales. And the quarterly loss from online services more than doubled, to $264 million, from the loss of $102 million in the quarter a year earlier.

But yesterday’s financial results also underline the growth and profitability of Microsoft’s mainstay personal computer software businesses. That gives Microsoft the financial firepower — it had $21.5 billion cash at the end of the quarter — needed to pour money into new fields for the long term, making moves like its $240 million investment on Wednesday in the social networking start-up Facebook.